Beauty Startup: 10 Tips to Successfully Start a Girl-Business in Serbia

Doing a job you love and loving what you do is a certain privilege in Serbia today. And turning your personal interests and favorite hobby into a business that can provide a comfortable living and "be your own boss" - for most people, it remains a realm of daydreaming.

There's no doubt that the idea of starting your own business sounds great to everyone, but for most, it falls apart at the first encounter with obstacles. Indeed, private business is not for everyone. Besides a good idea and initial resources, market analysis, and expertise, one's own character is of great importance - perseverance, persistence, tactfulness, and often courage. And if you're also a woman (a mother, a wife...), the challenges are slightly greater.

While men traditionally dominate in most industries, there are areas where women have "sovereignty." It's the Beauty Industry, or the beauty industry that encompasses a range of different professions that unite in one goal - achieving the perfect appearance of the face and body, hair, skin, and nails.

Since cosmetics and facial and body aesthetics are something that is close to every woman, we present 10 tips on how to start your own business in the beauty industry and monetize your love for beauty.

Initial Capital

This is simply indispensable. Even if you're a pioneer in a certain area of the beauty industry, financial resources are necessary for starting your own beauty startup, let alone if you plan to enter an already saturated market. Depending on your ambitions and capabilities, the initial investment can range from a few thousand to tens of thousands of euros. Starting with more zeros definitely makes it easier, but it's not a guarantee of success.

Idea, Vision, and Focus

Even with millions invested, it will be difficult to recover if you don't have a clear idea and vision of what you want to do, whom you offer your service or product to, and how much you are "needed" in the target market. If you're starting a business with limited resources, the advice would be to initially focus on one type of service/product and specialize in it. Whether it's professional makeup, manicure and pedicure, laser hair removal, or something else - it's up to you.

Choosing the Right Partners

People often start a business with friends. Common interests can strengthen or even strain friendships, but one thing is certain - friendship should not be the criterion for choosing partners. The selection of business partners and collaborators is an extremely important factor in every industry, including the beauty business, and evaluating candidates' competencies (both professional and personal) should not be overlooked. A smartly assembled team will overcome even the greatest challenges!

Online Presence

The digital age is already well underway. Developing a business without a well-organized, up-to-date, and nicely designed website or at least a business page on popular social media platforms simply doesn't go hand in hand today. Moreover, if you decide to develop your own line of cosmetic products, online sales are a given. If you opt to provide certain beauty services, online appointment booking will significantly bring you closer to customers.

Marketing

An indispensable part of every entrepreneur's strategy. How to reach clients, where and how to market products, how to determine the target audience and outperform the competition - these are just some of the numerous questions that determine business success. In addition to traditional advertising strategies, the internet has become the primary medium for promoting businesses in the last decade. Links and banners on popular portals, along with effective optimization of your website, are among the most significant factors for attracting customers.

Reliability and Quality

Attracting and enticing consumers and customers is only halfway to establishing a successful beauty business. The other, more important half is retaining clients and bringing them back to you. In that sense, the quality and reliability of your product/service are the best recommendations. While expertise, a professional approach, and friendliness are expected from service providers, for those who decide to launch their own product line, we advise consulting pharmaceutical and medical experts first and familiarizing themselves with the official Regulation on Cosmetic Products.

Direct Sales and Promotion

Promoting and marketing products will undoubtedly be more effective if done through direct contact with customers. There is no written guide that can present your cosmetic product better than you and your associates, explaining and convincing clients why they should use it. This approach should be a standard practice, at least in the initial stages of business development. Once your product is recognized as useful and necessary, online sales will naturally follow, and potential opportunities in retail stores may also arise.

Education and Trends

Even if you have a well-established business, and especially if you are planning to start one, continuous education in the beauty industry is an essential requirement for survival in a demanding market. Regardless of the top-notch skills and techniques possessed by you and your collaborators, ongoing improvement and staying up-to-date with beauty industry trends are indispensable in modern business. Market analysis, courses and training, learning from competitors, and considering feedback/suggestions from customers are practices that must be respected in today's time.

Business Instinct

Wisdom in making business decisions comes with years and experience, something that most young entrepreneurs lack when they decide to start a business. However, intuition and a sense of business are qualities that some individuals are born with or simply possess, and they should not be afraid to leverage them. We are certainly not talking about a reckless "all or nothing" attitude, but intuition should never be disregarded in life, including in business.

Patience and Perseverance

Even when business circumstances are entirely "healthy" and favorable, true success does not come overnight. Potential obstacles along the way, from administrative and logistical to staffing and economic, require a lot of patience and perseverance. When starting a business, you must be aware that in the first year, and perhaps even longer, you may not achieve significant profits. But that should not discourage you. Patiently building a foundation for the future typically leads to long-term success.

To prove that this story is not just a nice business theory, Marija Čalija, the owner of the brand Cacao Concept, exemplifies it with her personal experience.

Seven full years after starting her first manicure business, this native of Kragujevac has become a successful entrepreneur who, together with her collaborators, sets the standards for the beauty industry in Serbia and the region.

In a relatively short period of time, through dedicated work and continuous improvement, Marija and her team have created a recognizable brand among women, even beyond the borders of Serbia (franchises in Zagreb, Banja Luka, Podgorica, and more).

The whole story has long surpassed the realm of manicures and grown into a network of beauty centers where a range of aesthetic treatments is performed, from professional makeup and eyebrow shaping to lash lifts and phyto peels, as well as laser hair removal, tattoo removal, maderotherapy, and many others.

In collaboration with pharmacists, they have created their own line of Cacao cosmetics, and by establishing the Cacao Academy for training and development of interested participants, the developmental ladder of the Serbian beauty industry has been raised to a higher level.

Positive examples should be followed, and with a clear vision, a reliable team, and the right strategy, nothing is impossible. Especially when you love what you do!